A busy week, a coffee, a book.
Hard and heavy logistics.
Train delayed,
Kindle left behind.
I look at others…
consumption leaks out.
Happy With My E-reader
I hope everyone in the UK is having a great Bank Holiday Monday today? It was really nice the last few days, but the weather turned really cold, wet, and quite frankly, as I write this, miserable out there. Last week was a really busy week with several meetings including an overnight trip to Essex.
I’m just two books away from finishing everything I had outstanding, as I mention in Reading section further down, I’m currently reading Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf. Amidst all the rushing around, trains, tubes etc I found myself really missing my Kindle. Or at the very least, the convenience of an e-reader.
As a ‘gadget man‘ I was surprisingly late to the Kindle. I was somewhat jealous of Eve using hers all throughout the pandemic lockdowns, and she kindly got me one for Christmas 2021. Since then, I’ve read hundreds of books on it and really enjoy the form factor. And I found lugging Building Imaginary Worlds around with me this week, not quite fitting in my backpack, dense and heavy, was a little frustrating.
It made me appreciate just how convenient the device really is. Of all the technology in my life, I realise now that my Kindle is probably the one I get the most value from. When you’re wedged between commuters on a delayed train, trying to balance a coffee and a paperback too big for your bag, the absence of it is definitely felt.
It’s not like I read everything on a device. I’ve got plenty of physical books on the go, but at this point, they’re all I’ve got left until I finally ‘clear the decks’. But carrying a book outside of the house has basically vanished from my life since the pandemic. Even when I go on holiday, I read my Kindle on the plane and only pull the physical books out of my luggage once I’ve arrived.
Until this week I hadn’t realised that I wasn’t missing carrying a book around with me. A book in the bag or coat pocket used to be second nature to me, but now it feels like a deliberate choice. That said, I’ve noticed more and more people on the Tube reading physical books again. Compared with the 28 Days Later vibe of carriages full of people glued to their phones post-lockdown, it feels like a meaningful shift.
There’s something defiant about it. In a space so dominated by attention-grabbing screens, and advertising, seeing someone turning pages instead of scrolling actually feels almost radical. A person reading a book isn’t signalling productivity, or trying to optimise their commute. They’re simply inhabiting time differently.
Physical books are also outward-facing. You can glimpse a cover, clock a title, maybe even strike up a conversation. All the things that people said when the kindle first launched when I was working in a book shop. E-readers are private, and phones even more so. Walled gardens of algorithmic preference.
In the digital sphere, you have to actively signal (both to the system and to everyone inside it) what you’re doing, what you’re consuming, and what you’d like to consume more of. And even then, people have fallen out of the habit of retweeting their friends’ work or reposting things they think are good.
A paperback on the Tube, meanwhile, is porous. It leaks a little cultural texture into the space around it. Consumption becomes a signal in and of itself.
But I think I’m happy with my e-reader. But I’m also glad the books are back.
On The Blog
The AI Gradient: Organisational Culture, Power, and the Uneven Future of Work
Whilst I didn’t post anything here on the blog this week, but why not read this post I co-wrote with the crew from Rival Strategy on The AI Gradient
Following the publication of our most recent post on healthcare and AI, we had a long conversation with our friend and frequent collaborator Jay Springett about AI adoption in organisations more generally. Here we capture some of the insights that emerged.
And more generally, this is an example of the uneven distribution of the benefits of AI. The status of an organisation, its digital maturity (use of data and software, recognition of their value in leadership), and institutional power—AI can accelerate all of these factors. Therefore:
AI strategy must be approached not as a matter of productivity tooling but as institutional design. While allowing teams to experiment with AI independently has value, this often results in leadership deferring accountability, causing organisations to miss AI’s full potential – if senior executives don’t fully understand the affordances of AI and if non-execs cannot engage with the realities of the business.
Permanently Moved
The Work Of The Body, Though Toil
Amidst the day-to-day rhythms of the body, The Artist must pay attention to the humble thoughts that might become great actions. These little ideas are found everywhere, always poised at the lip of ignition.
Full Show Notes: https://zexulo.xyz/2025/05/03/2510-the-work-of-the-body-though-toil/
Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
Subscriber Zine! https://startselectreset.com/Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo
Subscribe to the Podcast: https://permanentlymoved.online/
Quarterly zine; my gift to you ✉️
Photo 365
The Ministry Of My Own Labour
- Went to Essex! Stayed overnight! A 2 day meeting
- Report writting
- Pulling meeting notes together (all next week)
- Lots of calls
- Lots of editing
Terminal Access
Sam Kriss writing about watching Married at First Sight Australia is fantastic.
Men don’t watch stuff like MAFSA unless prodded into it by their girlfriends, and the one thing all the men on the show have in common is that they don’t have girlfriends.
Dipping the Stacks
The US just lost a war, and no one noticed
Over the eight decades following the end of World War II, the US has taken part in dozens of land wars, large and small. The outcomes have ranged from comprehensive victory to humiliating defeat, but all have received extensive coverage. By contrast, the US Navy’s admission of defeat in its longest and most significant campaign in many decades, has received almost no attention. Yet the failure of attempts to reopen the Suez Canal to shipping has fundamental implications for the entire rationale of maintaining a navy.
Markdown and the Slow Fade of the Formatting Fetish
With every update, the focus shifted further away from writing and toward formatting. Using Word, you come to think that writing means choosing fonts. From the beginning, Word uses a proportional, finished font. Instead of thinking about what to say, users were trained to concentrate on how it looks.
How to Rebuild an Imaginary Future (2025)
This project that I’ve been talking about, it’s a design fiction project. I said fifteen years ago that design fiction is a form of design, and it’s not a genre of fiction. Historically, design trends come and go. This time, it might be the fiction that matters more here.
This road is broken – and nobody can fix it
I think it is a damning reflection of the inertia in Britain and its institutions.
Why did it take a year to negotiate access for geotechnical surveys? Why are so many different agencies and organisations involved in managing the road, and why do none of them want to own the problem? And most importantly, why is the only solution to what is essentially a local problem to hope that the local MP catches the ear of the right person in Westminster?
The media needs to get over its Adolescence obsession
Focusing on Badenoch’s failure to watch Adolescence was a waste of time by BBC Breakfast.
Reading
I finished Saints by Amy Jeffs. Another wonderful collection of stories that in some way serve to reconstitute the idea of english identity. I think Jeff’s is a hugely important author in our current period. But the influence of her work and books isn’t going to be felt for a generation.
I only have 2 books left to finish now! So I’ve picked up Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf again. It’s a book I’ve browsed and referenced a lot in my work but intend to finish it cover to cover.
Subscribing to SSRZ supports my online work and creative projects.
As a thank you, I send you my zine four times a year, just like it’s 1994.
No spam. No email. Cancel at any time.
Music
Sumac & Moor Mother – The Film
I had a long train ride back from Essex this week and I listed to the new collaboration album between American poet and sonic collage artist Moor Mother, and post-metal improv supergroup Sumac.
One of the things I really like about the current era, the sort of music that’s catching my ear, is that the idea or notion of genre has just been exploded. The most insetting and challenging music isn’t Genre X meets Genre Y. But musician’s from Genre X and Y making Genre Z together. And The Film is one such collaboration. There’s little room to breathe its a complete thing. Well worth listening to from start to finish at least once.
Remember Kids:
Liber Samekh – Aleister Crowley
"Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!"
Newsletter 📨
Subscribe to the mailing list and get my weeknotes and latest podcast episodes, sent directly to your inbox
Leave a Reply